Food Porn Class ! At Kitchen in the Market

For anyone who has following my blog for any length of time, you will know that my recipes are solid, but the pictures ? Well, not so much. I admit it, most of the pictures that appear here are taken with my (not so smart) Smart Phone. I just am not good with anything creative except food. I do, in fact, have "craft-phobia".

But, I wanted my blog to look pretty ! Or at least more professional. So I signed up for a class at the Kitchen in the Market called "Food Porn". I wanted to take this class just for the name, but as it turns out, it is all about plating, and making the most of the presentation of your food, including photography.

Sunday's class was about "action shots" and then plating. I will do my best to describe these dishes, since I wasn't the chef in this case, but I wanted to show off some of my mad, new photography skills! Hopefully I can remember some of them for future photos on the blog.

We started the session with a lovely glass of white sangria, with apples, oranges, limes, kumquats and fresh thyme. It was served in a large, clear jug, which showed off the fruit.

When we arrived, the tables were set with glass cups of spiced almonds, and what appeared to be baba ganoush with pomegranates. It almost tasted like it had mustard added, but I think it was just the combination of garlic and I think perhaps horseradish that made it taste so delicious.

The challenge for the day was to watch the chefs preparing the food, take photographs and then plate the food ourselves.

The first dish was grilled vegetables with a romesco sauce. The romesco was the complicated part of this dish, it was roasted tomatoes, red peppers and garlic, blended with almonds and bread.

I wanted to show the beautiful job Thommi did of roasting the vegetables, so when I plated, I chose this long, narrow blue plate, and was very minimalist in my design.

The next dish was croquetas with manchego cheese and serrano ham. They were dipped in an egg wash, panko bread crumbs and deep fried.

What's not to love about cheese and ham ? Normally I am not a fan of fried foods, but this one was very delicate.

Our main dish was the show-stopper, paella. I was in serious lust with the giant paella pan, and I took lots of pictures of the process.

So many tasty ingredients in one dish, and then the challenge of finding an interesting way to present it ! I wanted to show off the seafood, so I mostly used the crispy rice and veggies as a support for those.

For dessert, we had miniature almond olive oil cakes drizzled a brown butter sauce.

I somehow expected these to be heavy because of the olive oil, but they were very delicate.

Of course, I had to add extra sauce to my plate, so I could drag the sweet cake through some extra frosting. Yummy!

All in all, it was a really great meal, and I am pleased with my photos. Looking forward to the next session!